Best Picture – The Hurt Locker. I think that the two-dimensional foundation behind Avatar‘s three-dimensional facade is just too much of an anchor, and Hurt Locker‘s the best of the bunch. Whatever negative buzz was generated by the idiot producer’s campaign e-mails* came too late to hurt the film amongst voters.
Best Director – Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker. Just as it felt like it was time, at last, for Barack Obama to come along and break up the steady parade of White Guys in the Oval Office, it’s about damn time for a woman to win an Oscar for directing a movie.
Best Actor – Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart. Haven’t seen the movie, but Jeff Bridges, a constantly underrated workhorse of an actor is seriously overdue for some Oscar love.
Best Actress – Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia. I don’t think I want to live in a world where Meryl Streep winning an Oscar and Sandra Bullock not winning one is considered a major upset. It troubles me. Again, I haven’t seen either film. But the idea of Sandra Bullock, of all people, winning an award for the quality of her acting just does not compute for me. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this one go either way, but I just can’t bring myself to predict a win for Sandra Bullock.
Best Supporting Actor – Christoph Waltz, Inglorious Basterds. The supporting awards seem to be the mortal locks of the night this time around. I haven’t seen ANYONE say the award will go to anyone but Waltz.
Best Supporting Actress – Mo’Nique, Precious: I Refuse to Dignify the Rest of This Movie’s Absurd Title By Typing it Here. At long last correcting the grave injustice of 2004, when the Academy failed to even nominate her for her outstanding turn as Jamiqua in Soul Plane. Fun fact: it’s hard to believe now, but Soul Plane didn’t receive a single Oscar nomination!
Best Original Screenplay – Quentin Tarantino, Inglorious Basterds.
Best Adapted Screenplay – Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air. Because at least one of the screenplay awards ALWAYS has to play as consolation prize for a highly acclaimed movie that’s not going to win any of the other awards it’s up for. Usually, this is the Original Screenplay category – and if Mark Boal wins for Hurt Locker, look for Avatar to win Best Picture in the classic Citizen Kane/How Green Was My Valley or Pulp Fiction/Forrest Gump, “Original Screenplay as Consolation Prize for the Real Best Film of the Best Picture Nominees That’s Getting Screwed by a Lesser But Often Highly Profitable Movie Winning Best Picture” scenario.
* – A controversy made all the more bizarre and hilarious by the implication behind shunning this guy that Academy Awards voting is somehow a process just swimming in integrity and the producer sending out these e-mails has somehow violated this sanctified tradition.